Carla Del Ponte Tells All (?) in Book about Yugoslavia Tribunal

Carla Del Ponte stepped down in December after serving as prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for eight years (and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for four years). She is now Switzerland's ambassador to Argentina.
Last week, she published memoirs of her years in the Tribunal. The book is only available in Italian, for the time being. It was reviewed in Saturday's Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/12/warcrimes.kosovo.
The most sensational allegation, according to media reports, concerns a camp in Albania where hundreds of Serbs were slaughtered for their organs, which were then sold. Some journalists are asking why she didn't investigate further, but I think the answer is perhaps rather straightforward: no jurisdiction. The Tribunal had jurisdiction over the territory over the former Yugoslavia, and that excludes Albania.
Late last year, Del Ponte's press officer, Florence Hartmann, published her account of years at the Tribunal: Paix et Châtiment (http://www.amazon.fr/Paix-ch%C3%A2timent-Florence-Hartmann/dp/2081206692/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208161780&sr=1-1). It too makes rather spectacular charges, although I found it to be a bit of a rant. Moreover, it is hard to know how much is true because those in a position to contest what is stated respect their oath of confidentiality, which is more than one can say about Hartmann (or Del Ponte, for that matter).
I'm going to Italy in a few weeks, and will try and pick up a copy of the Del Ponte book.

Lose Weight through Genocide

Most readers of this blog know that I am not an advocate of large and liberal approaches to the definition of genocide. But the exaggerated, indeed hyperbolic, use of the term seems to have hit a new low with a recently published book: Genocide: How Your Doctor's Dietary Ignorance Will Kill You!!!! by Dr. James E. Carlson. According to the blurb on amazon.com, the book 'breaks the chains of ignorance when it comes to dieting and staying healthy. Concern for his patients led this medical doctor to unveil common misconceptions regarding carbohydrates, fat, proteins, sugars and cholesterol that are perpetrated and perpetuated by the medical community. Regrettably, with the advice of doctors millions of Americans are eating themselves into an early grave. Now, avoiding a priori reasoning, readers are able to draw their own conclusions on what lifestyle is best for them and how to initiate the most sensible diet possible.' Raphael Lemkin, the great international criminal lawyer who invented the term 'genocide' described how starvation diets imposed by the Nazis on Jews and other minorities was part of a plan of extermination. But I don't think that when he coined the word he every dreamed it would come to this.

Universal Periodic Review begins with UK in the hotseat

The Human Rights Council launched the Universal Periodic Review mechanism for monitoring of human rights last week. On Thursday, it was the turn of the United Kingdom. The event got coverage on Reuters, with the headline ‘UN forum faults Britain over terror suspect rules’ (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10858002.htm). According to the account:

‘Britain was criticised by its allies and detractors at the U.N.'s main human rights forum on Thursday, over its treatment of terrorism suspects, prison inmates and racial minorities. In a three-hour debate at the United Nations Human Rights Council, countries also raised questions over the conduct of British troops deployed overseas and rising rates of suicide among prison inmates in overcrowded domestic jails. Britain, the closest U.S. ally in the "war on terror", is among the first 16 countries whose records are being examined by the 47-member forum at a two-week meeting. In response to concerns voiced by Cuba, India and Syria, Michael Wills, Britain's minister of state for justice, said his government was constantly reviewing counter-terrorism legislation to deal with an unprecedented threat. Switzerland said it hoped Britain would reduce rather than extend the maximum period during which suspects may be detained without charge. Currently 28 days, it is already the longest in the European Union, the Swiss delegation said. Iran voiced concern at "increasing racial prejudice against ethnic minorities, asylum seekers and immigrants" in Britain and a "disproportionately high number of stops and searches carried out by police against members of ethnic or racial minorities". The U.S. expressed concern at what it said was a rise in suicides among inmates in prisons throughout Britain and Ireland.’

I would describe this as being off to a good beginning. The criticisms seem frank and quite well-placed. It is appropriate that a Western country be treated this way in order to ensure balance, fairness and universality. Britain sent a relatively high ranking official, which is also a good sign of the importance of the event. No doubt the critics of Britain, including Iran, India, Syria, Cuba, the United States and even Switzerland will get their turn to be challenged. Hopefully, the UK will be as hard on them as they were on it. And they won't be able to complain the way they have in the past when their human rights abuses were denounced in United Nations fora. Their behaviour last week will make it hard for them to argue that they are being abused, or that their sovereignty is threatened. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I couldn’t find accounts of this on the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The supporting documents are all there, of course: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/PAGES/GBSession1.aspx. But there is no report on the session itself, which is unfortunate. Here is the programme for the next four years: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/uprlist.pdf. As you can see, Ireland will be one of the last to present.

Irish Yearbook of International Law

Congratulations to Sioban Mullaly and Jean Allain, for the first edition of the Irish Yearbook of International Law. It is an impressive volume, nicely produced and rich in content, published by Hart: http://www.hartjournals.co.uk/iyil/. Articles in the first edition include:

David. M Ong, International Environmental Law’s "Customary" Dilemma: Betwixt General
Principles and Treaty Rules
Alexander Orakhelashvili, The Power of the UN Security Council to Determine the Existence of a "Threat to the Peace"
J. Paul McCutcheon & Gerard Coffey, Life Sentences in Ireland and the European
Convention on Human Rights Maria Walls & Agustina Palacios, Changing the Paradigm - The Potential Impact of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Peter Hulsroj, To the Rescue, All Hands: The Good Neighbour Principle in International Law
Getahun Seifu, The Interplay of the ACP-EU Economic Partnership Agreements and the Rules of the World Trade Organization: "Double Jeopardy" on Africa
Leopold von Carlowitz, The Right of Property for Refugees and Displaced Persons?: On the Progressive Development of Customary Law by the International Administrations in the Balkans

I think that the second edition is almost ready for publication, and should be out later this year or early next year.

Videoclips of international law specialists

Check out http://www.lawvideolibrary.com/, a library of videotaped interviews prepared by Jean Allain, of Queen's University Belfast. Jean has tracked down many specialists in human rights law (Thomas Buergenthal, David Weissbrodt), international criminal law (Navy Pillay, Philippe Kirsch), state responsibility (James Crawford) and others for these very useful and informative sessions.

Footnotes

A very useful guide to preparing footnotes and similar details is on the website of Oxford University Press: http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199287550/resources/footnotes/.

Travaux préparatoires of the Rome Statute

I was recently asked about where to find the travaux préparatoires of the Rome Statute on line: http://www.icc-cpi.int/legaltools/. The United Nations has published the 'Official Records' of the Rome Conference, in three volumes, and these are the core of the travaux. They can be found on the website and downloaded, so that you can search them by keyword. Also available are the reports of the International Law Commission from 1993 and 1994, the report of the Ad Hoc Committee from 1995, and the reports of the Preparatory Committee in 1996 and 1998. If you want further detail, the individual documents including many that are not strictly speaking official (and therefore there is some question as to whether they are, strictly speaking, travaux) can also be found. The ICC legal tools website is quite thorough, but it is not very user friendly because of the volume of documents. For the core documents of the travaux, it is actually much simpler to look on the UN website: http://untreaty.un.org/cod/icc/index.html.

Rule of Law and the Security Council

A few weeks ago, I reported on a meeting in Athens sponsored by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe dealing with counterterrorism measures and human rights. One of the issues there concerned the fact that the Security Council seems to place itself outside of any form of judicial oversight. This becomes especially troublesome as it moves increasingly into the area of criminal law. Hundreds of years ago, modern democracies insisted that political authorities could not be above the law. That's where the whole idea of habeas corpus comes from. And it also drove much of the thinking in the French and American revolutions. Yet with globalisation, we find that the embryo of our world government is still resistant to any form of judicial review or oversight of its actions. A thoughful discussion of some of these issues, entitled The UN Security Council and the Rule of Law, appears on the website of the Austrian mission to the UN: http://www.bmeia.gv.at/index.php?id=67169&L=1. Simon Chesterman, of NYU, has written an article on the subject, entitled 'An International Rule of Law', in the latst American Journal of Comparative Law: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1081738.
Thanks to Simon Chesterman for this.

Katarina Månsson's Viva

This afternoon, Katarina Månsson successfully defended her doctoral thesis at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, entitled 'A Communicative Act: Integrating Human Rights in UN Peace Operations'. The jury was made up of Prof. Michael Pugh, of the University of Bradford and myself. Katerina's research supervisor was Dr Ray Murphy. Katarina recently began work as Human Rights Officer in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and she is currently based in the Kampala Office. Congratulations, Katerina.

The photo shows, from left, myself, Ray Murphy, Katarina Månsson and Michael Pugh.

Doctoral seminar, 2008

For the past six years, we have held a one-week intensive seminar for PhD students in human rights, generally in early April. We are in the midst of the seminar this week. Distinguished academics from around the world are invited to attend. Each presents a seminar of his or her own work. The students also make presentations, which are discussed and commented upon by all present. This year, the distinguished visitors were: Prof. Semih Gemilmaz, Istanbul University; Dr Alfred de Zayas, formerly of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Prof. Anita Ramasastry, of the University of Washington. We always take one afternoon for an outdoor social event. Yesterday, we all went to County Clare, where we visited the Doolin Cave. It boasts the world's biggest stalagtite (they are the ones that hang from the ceiling).